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The event called for a 3000pts main force and a 500pts reinforcement force to allow you to modify your army for each game. There was 5 games to play split over the two days, with a number of special missions and a random 'Fog of War' effect on each game.
GW managed to sell 36 tickets (out of approximately 64 on sale), main problem on take up is the closeness of the event to the 8th Edition release and as could be seen over the weekend, most people had managed at most 1 or 2 games prior to the weekend (I had about 6 games so far).
The players were split into 2 sets of 18 WAR & HAMMER, with War playing 2 large games of 3000pts on the Saturday and 3 games of 2000pts on Sunday (Jamie 'Ogregut' from Armageddon and Colin & Ian from my Hitchin Club all stepped over to the War group).
1st game of the Weekend for my Skaven Horde was to be 'Hired Swords' from the back of the BRB against a combined Warriors of Chaos/Daemons of Chaos/Beastmen which was led by Chaos Sorcerer Lord of Tzeentch (4th Level) on a Chaos Dragon completely decked out for maximum magic and Ward protection.
We played over 8' by 6' table with lots of scenery.
Game went well for me - destroying all the small units of troops he had and wonderful shot from the Warplightning Cannon that did 5 wounds on the Chaos Dragon. I had to fend off 6 attempts to 'Infernal Gateway' on my Plague Furnace unit with Skrolk (he failed to roll strength 11/12 on 2d6).
Massacre for me plus I managed to complete 2 of my Special Missions.
Wood for the War effort - hold more woods than your opponent
The High Ground - hold more Hills than your opponent
2nd game of the weekend I was pitted against a Lizardman player defending on Invasion from the back of the BRB.
His force contained 4 Stegadons, Slann Mage Priest all tooled up in a Temple Guard Unit plus the usual Saurus and Skinks.
Game started well as I had layed out the scenery to force him up the centre of the table into my Plague Monks.
Then the Magic started and soon realised the potency of a Slann Mage and Lore of Life - suddenly his Slann was mostly immune to Miscasts (Throne of Vines ignore on 2+), then Flesh to Stone on Temple Guard making them T8, followed by Regeneration and all this with an extra free dice to cast.
I soon realised that I was not going to complete my Special Mission: Surgical Strike - destroy most expensive enemy unit.
So I concentrated on destroying his forces before he could get to my defensive positions; Hellpit Abominations were superb and so was Skrolk till he cast 'Dwellers below' and I failed his strength test and then I found out that the Temple Guard had the Flaming Banner (from the BRB) and down went my HPA.
Game ended on 3 vs 2 Objective points to the Lizardmen - a close thing
Day 2 - Sunday
3rd Game - Skaven vs Skaven playing 'Dawn Attack' - opponent had a Grey Seer in Stormvermin, couple of Clanrats, Ratogres, HPA, Plagueclaw Catapult and a Doomswheel. So in the balance it looked equal chances to win.
Deployment changed things - her force practically all setup in the centre, mine rolled up in each flank.
My right flank with the 2 Plague Monk units smashed it's way through to the other side, while the Warplightning Cannon killed her HPA (after it had managed to shred my HPA).
The Grey Seer cast 13th Spell on Plague Monks and Irresistable Force and then popped off to the Realm of Chaos.
End of game - Skrolk and crew spent the game running after the Stormvermin. Result a Massacre for me but failed in Special Mission as we had both destroyed the same number of Special & Rare units.
4th Game - vs Tomb Kings at Watch Tower.
A very different kind of Tomb King Army than I've normally seen, based around Queen Khalida it had 3 Skeleton Bowmen units, 2 Light Cavalry Bowmen, 2 Skull Catapults, Tomb Scorpian and 2 Liche Priest (1 on Casket).
After his first turn I realised how deadly this force was going to be with Incantations making the Bows and Catapults fire in the magic phase and always hitting on 5+ with poison on 6. I was loosing 20 Plague Monks each turn.
Then bad charge dice and random movement from HPA meant I did not reach combat till turn 4.
By turn 5 I had 1 HPA, Plague Furnace and Plague Priest going nowhere, 10 Night Runners in the Watch Tower and 8 Giant Rats and Packmaster left....
We rolled the dice and got a 5...
I win as I had the Watch Tower (VPs showed a different picture 1900 vs 500 to the Tomb Kings).Failed my Special mission as I needed to get 3 units into the enemy deployment zone ( I had been counting on the HPA and the Furnace to make it.
5th Game - vs Orcs & Goblins playing Meeting Engagement.
So I had 4 units of Orc Boyz 30 Strong with Battle Standard Bearer, 3 Stone Trolls, Stone Thrower, 2 Shamans and Orc Warlord on Wyvern. Oppenent had managed to win all 4 of his games so far - so was very confident in the armies abilities.
We were 13" apart and he got the 1st turn and stayed put - did minimal damage to me.
My turn 1 - I charge with every thing but only get Skrolk/Plague Monk/Furnace unit into combat (another run of 1's on the charge dice). This was enough as after revealing the Plague Banner the unit caused 35 wounds in total on the Orc Boys and then over-ran into the Orc Warlord & Trolls and panicing 2 of the other Boyz units to run.
In the next combat phase Skrolk cut down the Wyvern from under the Warlord, the Plague Monks killed all the Trolls and the Warlord ran.
My turn 2 charged after the Warlord and killed him, while the HPA set themselves up to double charge the 4th Orc Boyz.
His turn 3 - he backed off from charging me with all 3 units of Orc Boyz??? I understood that Orc Initiative is low but I would prefer to charge than be charged?
So my turn 3 rolls round - Plague Furnace charges and wipes out another Orc Boy Unit and makes the one behind flee the table, the double charge of the HPA wipe out the 4th Orc Boyz but I lose 1 HPA. Meanwhile my small Plague Monk unit kills the Stone Thrower.
At which point he concedes the game as he only has 1 Orc Shaman looking at a HPA and the Goblin Shaman running for his life.
I complete my Special Mission: Assassination - kill enemy General.
So the end results of the Weekend: I have won 4 games and lost 1, completed 4 of 6 Special Missions.
A great result for my Skaven and truely bloodied in 8th Edition. Really like the 3000pts games than the 2000pts (things die very quickly in the new edition).
Hope you all have as much fun as I do in 8th.
